No, this beautiful, see-through bike isn’t made out of glass

This transparent Clarity bike wasn’t made out of glass: it’s a prototype by German design shop Designaffairs, made in Trivex.

Trivex is an extremely lightweight but very tough plastic, originally used in jetfighter canopies and helicopter windshields (we also found contact lenses online in them). But you could also use it to make this see-through Clarity bike from it, as German design studio designaffairs shows.

According to the designers, the material could be a giant leap forward in bicycle frame engineering and production. It was selected from a library of more than 2000 material samples – a library that was “tailored to meet production processes” needs, said Stefan Ulrich of Designaffairs to Dezeen magazine.

Here’s what they say on their website about it:

The Clarity bike is the next project within the material focus of designaffairs’ studio projects which focus on using amazing materials of our library in new contexts.

We believe that the Clarity Bike could be a giant leap forward in bicycle frame engineering and production. The design takes advantage of an advanced polymer which combines high impact resistance, lightweight properties and a gentle flexibility that usually would only be expected on an old Italian steel frame.

The polymer is injection moulded, which allows affordable and precise mass production while enabling unique form factors and a multitude of possible colour combinations. It also offers outstanding chemical resistance and thermal stability as it is virtually unaffected by most organic and inorganic chemicals and withstands very hot and cold temperatures.

In our understanding the perfect material match for creating a low cost bicycle characterised by convenience and an unmatched unique style.